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Below is a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, New York published by Chapman Publishing Co., in 1895.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JOHN W. DAY, M. D., is one of the ablest and best known physicians of Seneca County and is an influential citizen of Waterloo. His place of nativity was Sugar Hill, Orange County, N. Y., and the date of his birth July 7, 1845, his parents being Rev. John H. and Susan (Woodruff) Day. His father, who devoted his entire life to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was at one time a member of the old East Genesee Conference, and later was connected with the Central New York Conference. He died in October, 1891, near the village of Nelson, Pa.

The paternal grandfather of our subject was Thomas Day, a descendant of English ancestors. The mother, Susan, was born in Orange County, N. Y., and is still living, being a resident of Havana, Schuyler County, and now in her eighty-first year. She was a daughter of Jacob Woodruff. John W. is one of eight children, there being two sisters and one brother now living. He passed his boyhood days with his parents, but at the age of fifteen left home and took a course of study in Dundee Academy.

About this time the rumbling of the Civil War began to be heard distinctly in all parts of the country, and our subject, though only a youth of sixteen, took a deep interest in passing events, and a year later, when the clouds were lowering on every side and the future of the country seemed to be shrouded in darkness, the boy of seventeen took the part of a man in the conflict for the maintenance of the Union, one and inseparable. He was a member of Company G, One Hundred and Ninth New York Infantry, Col. B. F. Tracey commanding. He participated in many of the hard-fought engagements of the Army of the Potomac, of which his regiment formed a part. At the battle of the Wilderness he was badly wounded by a fragment of a shell, and was carried from the field to a hospital. His wound being of a painful character, he was discharged in 1864.

The family at that time resided in Rochester, N. Y., where our subject joined them. As soon as he had sufficiently recuperated his shattered health he took up the study of medicine with Dr. Eastman, of Geneva. Later he entered the medical department of Hobart College, from which he was graduated in 1870. He commenced the practice of medicine at Clifton Springs, N. Y., but soon removed to Saginaw, Mich., where he remained for five years. Not liking that climate or country, however, he came back to New York in 1875 and settled in Waterloo, where he has built up a fine practice, that he personally attends to. In 1890 he was appointed Postmaster at Waterloo and held the position for four and one-half years, but a change in the administration presented a new candidate for the office. Since that time he has given his attention to his practice and to his fine stock farm.

As a stock-breeder the Doctor has been very successful, so much so that the Patchen Horse Farm (his place) is known all over the world. He took three trips to Europe with selections from his stock, numbering seventy head. “Kaiser,” one of the most noted horses in this part of the country, stands at the head of the Doctor’s large herd, though there are others that were bred on the farm and have been sold for fancy prices, both in this country and abroad. Some of the horses he has bred are to be found in England, France, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Denmark and Italy. In January, 1895, he sent four horses from his farm to Copenhagen to be used by a crack military company. The farm is situated two miles south of Waterloo and is fitted up with every convenience for the breeding of fine horses and for their proper care.

In 1867 the Doctor married Miss Elizabeth Raines, of Canandaigua, N. Y., and they have a beautiful home in Waterloo. He is President of the village, and has served the public in that capacity two terms, besides filling other offices of trust. He is not a politician, and only occupied office from a sense of responsibility as a citizen, and not from choice. He enjoys the confidence and good-will of his neighbors and of those with whom he comes in contact in a business way. With the reputation he has made both as a successful physician and a breeder of fine stock, the future has for him a bright outlook. What he has is the fruits of his labor and the reward of perseverance in his professional labors. Failure rarely comes to men of his mold, and he is no exception to the rule. He has succeeded because he deserved success.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, New York published in 1895. 

View additional Seneca County, New York family biographies here: Seneca County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Seneca County, New York here: Seneca County, New York Map

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